3rd UPDATE: Leading Retailers Eye Carrefour SE Asia Assets - Sources
July 06 2010 - 6:40AM
Dow Jones News
Leading supermarket chains are interested in the assets of
French hypermarket Carrefour SA (CA.FR) in Singapore, Thailand and
Malaysia, two people with direct knowledge of the deal said
Tuesday.
"It's the big boys that are interested. Big C Supercenter PCL
(BIGC.TH) and Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN) for the Thai assets; Tesco, Dairy
Farm International Holdings Ltd.(D01.SG) and Japanese supermarkets
for the Malaysia stores, and Tesco for Singapore," one of those
people told Dow Jones Newswires.
A second person said if a single buyer emerges for all three
countries "the deal will probably be wrapped up this year. If not,
it could take a bit longer."
A third person said Monday that Carrefour was in the early
stages of selling its stores in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia
and that if the sale goes through it could fetch the French retail
giant up to US$1 billion.
Carrefour, Tesco, Dairy Farm and Big C all declined to
comment.
A spokesman for Japanese supermarket AEON Co. Ltd
(8267.TO)--which has bought the Japan assets of Carrefour--said he
hasn't heard about any deal and had no further comment to make. An
official from AEON's Malaysia unit declined to comment.
Carrefour Chief Executive Lars Olofsson in May said he was open
to offers for the company's operations in markets where it isn't in
the top two. Analysts have cited Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore
as likely candidates.
Under Olofsson's direction, Carrefour has focused efforts on its
key European markets of France, Spain, Italy and Belgium, where
weak consumption is hurting business. France alone accounts for
nearly half of the company's annual revenue.
-By P.R. Venkat and Costas Paris, Dow Jones Newswires; 65 6415
4151; costas.paris@dowjones.com
(Kenneth Maxwell and Jamie Miyazaki in Tokyo, Lee Kwan-Por in
Kuala Lumpur, Phisanu Phromchanya in Bangkok, Kazuhiro Shimamura in
Tokyo and Simon Zekaria in London contributed to this article.)
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